iNum numbers, which Voxbone introduced more than a year ago, use a global "country code" (883) and can ring phones anywhere in the world. They offer customers of participating service providers a globally portable number for life.

First of the incumbents to agree to route iNums are Verizon, as well as former PTTs Belgacom of Belgium and British Telecom. All these carriers currently have VoIP service offerings in place; calls to iNum numbers can be made by both IP and PSTN customers.

Upon receiving calls to iNum numbers, Voxbone sends them over its global IP network to the appropriate service provider for termination. In this way, it connects incoming calls from PSTN callers, as well as calls between different VoIP and IM providers.

"Gaining recognition of iNum from traditional, non-VoIP carriers is critical to iNum's long-term success and, more broadly, is a major industry milestone, signaling a pivotal change in the thinking of the world's national carriers," said Rod Ullens, CEO of Voxbone. "With short- or long-term IP conversion plans of their own, most incumbent operators are no longer fighting but rather embracing Internet-based communication services."

Ullens said he expects additional incumbents to follow.

Some iNum-participating carriers provide iNum numbers to their customers so they can receive calls on them. Other carriers, including Belgacom, BT and Verizon, are thus far only routing calls to the new numbers.

Simply routing iNum numbers brings several benefits to service providers. First, enabling subscribers to dial contacts who are on their preferred IM client or IP phone adds a valuable subscriber service. Secondly, this new connectivity generates new revenue-generating minutes. Finally, as carriers' IP build-outs progress, iNum numbers will help them create more all-IP call paths, enabling high-definition voice, video, presence, and other advanced features to augment and extend simple voice calls.

Voxbone offers iNum numbers for free to service providers. A list of all participating carriers and their rates for iNum connection appears on the www.inum.net site.

About Voxbone

Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, Voxbone provides worldwide local and toll-free phone numbers over its own private intercontinental VoIP network – the world's first and largest backbone dedicated to voice-origination services. The all-IP architecture of the Voxbone core network enables customers to rapidly deploy new communications services with local presence while reducing costs. It delivers high-quality call origination from 48 countries and 4,000 cities, as well as iNum numbers that enable billing as local calls when dialed through participating carriers anywhere in the world. Through its number inventory, network, self-administered provisioning and comprehensive SIP adherence, Voxbone's global infrastructure enables its customers to expand to international markets quickly and efficiently. Founded in 2002 and privately held, Voxbone is the only carrier licensed in all 27 countries of the European Union. For more information, visit www.voxbone.com.